Hasbro may not have unveiled a tremendous amount of new Marvel figures at 2014 Toy Fair, but there were definitely a few gems.
First, let’s deal with the elephant in the room: Everybody wants to know what the deal is with the Jubilee Series, with the 3rd wave of 6″ inch Iron Man figures, and the “swap” variants from previous Legends waves, including the likes of Bulldozer, Hawkeye, and others. I can tell you they all share the same fate: Limbo. The Jubilee wave fell victim to the lack of store resets and a clogged pipeline of toys. Those figures aren’t coming–at least not as a series.
The fact is that nearly all of the figures in question have been tooled. That represents a significant expense on the books for Hasbro, so they would very much like to get them to stores in some way. Most likely, that means slotting them where possible into future movie-themed waves (in the way that comic figures like Baron Zemo and Carnage were included in the Winter Soldier and Amazing Spider-Man series now on sale). However, there is nothing concrete to report at this time. Trust me, Hasbro is just as disappointed as we are that these haven’t made it out.
And now on to positive news…
A teaser image was released a few days ago of the Guardians of the Galaxy Legends figures, and those were shown today. These should be hitting stores just ahead of the movie’s release and represent the entire Guardians team from the movie (Star Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot). Groot is the build-a-figure and stands just over 9″ tall. Each of the figures is almost entirely new-tooling. But wait–it’s not just the movie team coming in this series. “Cosmic” Iron Man and a modern, comic-styled Nova were also shown. The Nova looks particularly nice.
But is this it for GotG? No, sir. There is a raft of other merchandise too long to list. Hasbro and Marvel Studios are clearly betting their hand on GotG being a big hit. As for other figures, they will have a 2.5″ figure line that is centered around vehicles, including Rocket’s Warbird, and Star Lord’s Milano ship.
As for more 6″ Guardians figures? Well, the A.I.M. soldier on sale now clearly uses a comic-styled Star Lord body, right? Hasbro would neither confirm or deny that more figures might be planned. Hmmm.
There was nothing more to report on the Captain America or Spider-Man series; what we’ve seen is pretty much it. But that’s part of Hasbro’s plan to handle the issue of distribution: short-lived series with limited waves can move through the retail channel more quickly, and hopefully avoid the problem of clogged pegs that keep subsequent figures from ever hitting the shelf.
Speaking of Marvel movies, Legends line manager, Dwight Stall was asked why Hasbro weren’t doing figures around X-Men: Days of Future Past. His answer, “We never said we weren’t doing that”. Hmmm…
And as for the marketing shift from an overall “Legends” line, to movie-themed waves, it seems to have worked well. According to Hasbro, they’ve moved more product in the last period than ever before (not sure what metrics they’re using there, but it certainly sounds promising).
For the 4″ Marvel line, we will finally see the Death’s Head that was teased so very long ago, along with Ares, Whirlwind, Red She Hulk, Deathlock, and Thor (Eric Masterson).
